ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Hero Recall

[Output]

Just thought I'd point this out to help make anyone affected on here aware if they weren't already.

The majority of those affected have reported seeing a Bios warning code of 53 on screen, which indicates a memory initialisation failure.

Others smelled smoke and found burn marks on the products, while one user on social media platform Reddit reported an actual fire being sparked.

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Asus acknowledged the issue in a statement on its website and warmed the fault could "affect units manufactured in 2021" with a specific part and serial number.

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Customers can also type in their serial number on Asus's website to see if their model could be faulty.

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"The issue potentially affects units manufactured in 2021 with the part number 90MB18E0-MVAAY0 and serial numbers starting with MA, MB, or MC."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-59859594

Although for some odd reason, the article states it's a laptop motherboard when trying to explain to the mainstream readers what they are, when they clearly mean desktop.

[Spreadie]

Yep, polarised capacitor installed the wrong way around.

Buildzoid spotted it immediately - all the photos of the damaged boards showed the polarity stripe on the opposite end of the cap to it's proper position on the PCB.

Speculation: either someone filled the Pick & Place machine incorrectly or a batch of component reels for the machine were supplied with the components in reverse.

[wazzickle]

Yep, polarised capacitor installed the wrong way around.

Buildzoid spotted it immediately - all the photos of the damaged boards showed the polarity stripe on the opposite end of the cap to it's proper position on the PCB.

Speculation: either someone filled the Pick & Place machine incorrectly or a batch of component reels for the machine were supplied with the components in reverse.

Interestingly, this is afaik basically the main mechanism evolution uses to vary genes: proteins turn up upside down from how they are meant to, thus we have variation.

[ChaosUK]

best part of this is that although it seems as a "small" problem it is not an easy fix to repair the boards on a larger scale. They mentioned that it was just a certain batch from one of many factories so hopefully for them its not a wide spread issue.